What truly matters most in a NAS?

Is it the operating system? Preferences vary; some favor commercial off-the-shelf systems, while others favor open-source freedom.

Or perhaps it's the hardware itself? While important, the core mission of any NAS storage device, whether home or portable, is data storage. Data is your most valuable digital asset, and hard disks are its foundation. We build NAS devices not only for easy access but also for reliable protection. So, when you're ready to get a NAS, most pre-built models don’t include drives - your first critical step is choosing the right drives for your storage pool.

So, how do we choose a suitable NAS storage hard disk?

Some users may consider using old hard disks sitting at home to build their NAS storage backup setup, which can certainly help save on initial costs. However, before putting them to work, a comprehensive health check is essential.

That said, if you're aiming for more reliable, longer-lasting storage performance and full NAS-grade data protection, we still recommend opting for new hard drives as your first choice.

Recently, some NAS storage manufacturers have limited full functionality—like health monitoring and deduplication—to certified drives only, restricting third-party drive support. Such policies have sparked user concerns and even hurt sales. These days, more manufacturers are adopting open and highly compatible hard drive support policies. 

Take PocketCloud as an example—its design emphasizes flexibility and broad usability. It fully supports mainstream drive brands like Samsung, Western Digital, Lexar, and Kingston, and is compatible with NVMe M.2 PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 4.0 solid-state drives. The image below shows some of the tested and compatible models. While we can’t test every drive on the market, most SSDs that meet the above specifications should work without issue.

Beyond that, PocketCloud also supports storage expansion via external hard drives or docking stations. Looking ahead, we plan to further enable direct backup to external storage devices, strengthening data security through a multi-tiered redundancy architecture.